‘05 Pista Concept!
I finally got my fingers on a 2005 Bianchi Pista Concept. It’s a 53cm which might be a little too small, but according to my calculations… it’s got the exact same dimensions as my current frame! Hopefully it will be a pretty simple transition. I’m utterly shocked at how incredibly light it is.
I scored it for a real good price too, so if I do decide that it’s not exactly the right size I should be able to flip it on ebay pretty quick and not lose any money.
I’m excited to get started with this build. I want to keep my other bike fully operational while I build this one up, and want to give it some love with all new parts across the board. Originally I wanted to powdercoat it all pink, and replace all of the stickers with white duplicates. Not too sure if I’ll keep with that idea or not, but I’ll keep you guys posted!
EVDO Hell
Other news… The guys at Mobi hooked me up with a new modem and everything is pretty peachy keen right now. I figured out a pretty nice, yet ghetto, way to mount my device to get solid reception. I’ll certainly be giving all of you the low down on Mobi PCS’s Hele EVDO service really soon. I’ve been taking lots of screenshots and jotting lots of notes so I can report an accurate review.
Hawaii as a Genetic Testing Ground
Just a short while ago, while wandering about the interwebs as I normally do, I stumbled upon something quite newsworthy about genetically modified organisms and Hawaii. I live in Hawaii and although I can’t call myself a Hawaiian, I’ve lived here just over a year now and think that I can safely call it my “home”.
While living here I have seen all kinds of “No Trespassing” hush hush kind of places on the island, and all sorts of testing facilities, and research facilities, all of the goodies that you might find in LOST. It all interests me, anything that is hush hush which relates to our environment does typically does, but I never really thought anything of it.
As it turns out, Hawaii is the place to be for genetic agricultural testing. Coating teflon balls with genetic material and literally shooting it like Chad with his pump shotgun into the cells of plants and animals. Companies like Dupont and Monsonto (which developed Agent Orange) are planting these genetically modified cops in the soil here, where the genetically modified material is seeping into the soil and being carried by animals to neighboring non-gmo — organic — farms.
I’ve been watching a video which goes into detail about the situation, which really does a good job of explaining the situation. I am nearly done (its a 30 minute video) and haven’t seen anything yet regarding the various biopharmaceutical companies’ side’s of the story, but hope to learn more about that as well.
You can give the video a watch here on The Pinky Show. I’m off to finish it up and get back to work!
Laptop Stolen
Stupid fucking idiot. I’m such a fucking moron.
I left my laptop in the smoking area of my building today, while I took my bike downstairs into the basement to lock it. I was gone about a minute or two, according to security cameras, and by the time I returned it was gone.
The suspect opened my bag, took the laptop, and booked it out of there. I circled all of the area on my bike looking for someone carrying it, and found nothing. Spent an hour looking at video footage with the security team, no dice.
Honolulu Police filed a report. I don’t ever expect to see that thing again. I made fun of it all the time because it’s sort of scratchy and rough on the edges… keys are cracked and missing paint, the screen is a little foobar, but really, I’ve never loved that laptop more than I do right now. It was a great machine, a machine I was working diligently on all last night, which is now gone.
Fuck me. I’m such a fucking idiot.
What The Fuck
Silverback’s new website is total gayballs. They finally launched it, which is hilarious and-and-of itself based upon the utter simplicity of their app. With all the hype generated from their original splash page, doesn’t make much of a splash for me. I’m pretty dry right now to be honest. The site really doesn’t live up to any of the hype that the splash and everyone who hyped it up made it out to be. It looks incomplete, rushed, and half-assed.
The app does look fairly decent though. Right now we’re using Screenflow to do all of our usability testing of Hammerhead, which seems to do a pretty good job. Funny how the screencast for Silverback was actually made with Screenflow, as pointed out by my buddy Cory Shaw who does all of our usability testing and caught the left-channel-only audio bug.
Close and Checkmark PDF Icons
I made these the other day for the desktop app we’re creating which will communicate with iLovePhotos.com. I thought I would be nice and spread the love, letting all of the other designers in the world less talented than I bask in a little tiny bit of my amazing-ness. I kid, but really, enjoy the freebies. Both are vectors in PDF format, so they will get as small or as big as your wildest desires might make them. Fancy stuff eh? Download here.
The Silver Cord
The Classic Crime is at it again with a new album. Really, really loving it so far. I loved their first album, Albatross, and their latest which was just released today is totally awesome. Itunes.
Fixation
I’m addicted to this shit. I just spent an hour looking online for and contemplating buying a $200 crankset. A Sugino 75 crankset to be exact, one which would give me a more common bolt pattern to pick and choose various chainrings easier. I’m still contemplating buying the new cranks and a new chainring, but for now, I have decided to push aside my desire for more gear inch madness in order to save for my true desire, a Bianchi Pista Concept frame.
Everyone here in Hawaii loves the NJS Japanese Keirin frames and parts, Nitto, Makino, 3Rensho, Panasonic, Samson, and anything Japanese with sparkles. Although I too like some of these frames, the bike that I would truly have a fixgasm over is the Pista Concept. Specifically the 2004 model, which is matte black with the celeste logo.
Sadly these things are incredibly hard to find. I also like the new white models, especially if everything else on the bike is 100% murder-status blacked out. I guess I’ll have to see… might be a good idea to actually have the cash to spend before contemplating all these possibilities. For now, time to get back to work!